La concezione di mutamento sociale in Georg Simmel

The paper aims at reconstructing Georg Simmel’s social change idea, deriving it from his works. In fact, he did not developed it fully. Simmel’s social change idea has got a theoretical basis, because of the ‘philosophy of life’ (Lebensphilosophie). The starting point of Simmel’s theory is ‘life’ (Leben). The life needs a series of processes to continue itself. Cell reproduction e.g. enables an organism to be alive (Mehr Leben). Such processes need to be organized and they are functional in perpetuating life itself (Mehr als Leben). In other words, Mehr als Leben allows life to consolidate and project itself into the future. This means overcoming the balance reached earlier and to adapt to the surrounding changing environment. Adaptation implies even minimal adjustments, i.e. continuous change. From the sociological point of view the life (Leben) of the society is the interaction between human beings. The social interaction means, according to Simmels’ opinion, reciprocity (Wechselwirkung) (Mehr Leben), mutual influences, and it enables a network of relationships. The next step is transforming social interaction into objective forms, i.e. less dependence from contingency, setting a supra-individual and more general level (Vergesellschaftung) (Mehr als Leben). The sociation forms (Formen der Vergesellschaftung) adapt themselves to changing human society.